Meridel Rubenstein, Oppenheimer's Chair
Meridel Rubenstein
born 1948 Detroit, Michigan; lives Santa Fe, New Mexico
Oppenheimer's Chair
1993
steel, etched glass, sand, video projection
10 x 7 x 9 ft.
lent by the Tia foundation, © 2020 Meridel Rubenstein
photo by Robert Reck
SITE Santa Fe commissioned Meridel Rubenstein to make Oppenheimer’s Chair in 1995 for Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby, their first International Biennial. That exhibition opened on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic test at Trinity. This room-size glass house, with sandblasted imagery and a video projection onto a glass chair, is a meditation on nature and the shedding of defensive postures after 50 years of the Cold War. An armored sentry figure, made of transparent film in a standing steel frame, guards the portal. The chair video can be seen through him.